Latino Daily News

FEDERAL RESERVE: Net Effect of Immigrants on U.S. Economy is Positive

As the unemployment rate hovers around 9.6% and new job creation prospects dim, each and every job taken by an immigrant is cause for concern. Many in the U.S. view immigrants as ‘job-takers’ and a drain on the struggling U.S. economy. Not so, says a recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

According to the report immigrants have no significant negative effect on the number of jobs available to U.S. citizens and they actually boost other incomes and productivity over time. Immigrants who tend to be less educated and lack special skills allow U.S. workers with their same level of job-readiness to shift into low-tech jobs, manufacturing or communication intensive jobs, which pay better.

Mathematically this translates to a .9% wage increase for each 1% increase of immigrant labor found. Therefore total immigration to the U.S. from 1990 to 2007 was credited with a 6.6% to 9.9% increase in real income per U.S. worker.